Varadaraja Raman: Perceived Reality

Varadaraja V. Raman is an emeritus professor of physics and humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has written many papers on historical, social, and philosophical aspects of science, as well as on India’s heritage, and has authored 10 books, including "Indic Visions in an Age of Science."

They are too small to be perceived as separate entities by our naked eyes, and so large in their numbers we can hardly imagine them. A spoonful of water contains more atoms than there are stars in the universe. They are at the deepest roots of perceived reality.

Like the soul of religions, energy is never recognized in its unclad glory; it manifests itself in different garbs. There is heat and light and motion, sound and electricity, too. All these are energy of one kind or another.